I think most of us are SOOOOOOOOO glad that Estes is owned/managed by a real HOBBY company now instead of the last 'disaster at the helm' that had no previous hobby experience whatsoever.

Matt,

Thanks for the reply. As someone who reentered the hobby in 1989, North Coast was a big part of the move to high power. My North Coast catalogs of the period ae well-worn, and my NCR Corporal was my first high power rocket, built in 1991.

I have flown a few 20+ year old composite motors with good resuts. I was wondering if you have a feel for how the Darkstars are aging and if thought was given to that when they were designed.

TMI TMI !!! :eek:






:D



.

Mick Gilette of RDS (RIP) also used the models approach. Probably sooner.

https://www.rocketreviews.com/rocke...hnnie-paul.html

Yeah, but 5x7 didn't mention his well worn catalogs... ;)

17,000 motors tested in development???

That totally surprised me. During the short time I was at AeroTech, I would say that most of the motors we developed were tested maybe 20-30 times (including the certification firings) before they were on the street (or, uh, er playa). Now bear in mind these were mostly reloads, and if you have say a Redline 38/240 reload worked out, pretty much you have the Redline 38/360 reload worked out too.

This was of course unless there were bugs...

Matt, did the Darkstars use pre-cut delay lengths, rather than the drilled delays seen on AeroTech motors of the same era?

Using the models was genius, it instantly communicated it was a legitimate hobby for adults!

That 871 catalog (with a 88 price sheet) was the first NCR catalog I received. As I recall, in the early days I purchased a Corporal (disappeared on a F10), a Phantom 4000, a Quasar II (staged BP F motors!) and . . . hmmm, there must have been one or two more.

Two members of my old Tripoli section, LIARS, had their photos used in a later catalog. They were way nerdy guys and not cover-model material! ;-)

1) Jerry's production numbers are wrong. It would never be Barry Tunick's methods to ever release numbers he considered proprietary. In addition, it would be silly to test that many motors and then release a number less than that for sale.

2) The release of the 4th Star Wars movie fed into the eventual demise of NCR at Estes. The company invested a great deal into Star Wars products at the expense of other products.

3) Yes, NCR had some memorable and eye-catching covers, didn't we?

Matt

1) The Dark Star delays were pre-cut to a specific length on an automated remote cutter, and then bonded (not just inserted) into the ejection plug; this prevented some of the issues that Aerotech experienced with hot gasses blowing past the delay and igniting the black powder charge prematurely.

2) Both the propellant and delay formulations were designed by Scott Dixon with a minimum of a 25 year shelf life. The motors should fly well long past the 25 year mark, but there was a conscious effort to formulate with long term aging in mind.

Matt